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DPL: Selected land use plan contractor asks for delay
The Department of Public Lands was set on issuing a notice of proceed to a contractor to develop a “CNMI comprehensive public land use plan” to guide public land development in the CNMI last month, but that contractor has asked for a delay, or pushback to a start date of August.
DPL Secretary Marianne Concepcion-Teregeyo is considering options to go with one of the other two contractors who submitted a bid for the project. However, there was a “great disparity” in the funding, or the project costs, between the two contractors and the one chosen for the project.
“There is some internal issues with the contractor and they are asking for a delay,” Teregeyo told Saipan Tribune in an interview yesterday. “They are asking for approval to begin the plan in August, which means it kicks [the project] back a year or two. It has a one-year deliverable.”
“Now I have to decide if we will re-announce” the land use plan, she added. “But we are short money because the price difference for the remaining two bids is huge.”
Patricia Rasa, DPL director of planning, called the price difference “extreme” but added they could check with the two proposers if they could come back with their “best and final” offer.
Teregeyo preferred to withhold the costs figures when asked for them, as she clarified that a contract has not been signed and a re-issuing of a request for proposal was still on the table.
“The Department is ready,” Teregeyo said. “The contractor is asking for a delay. Do I accept the delay? Or do I cancel that and announce a new RFP, or do I go back to the existing two [proposals] and ask for a best and final,” Teregeyo explained.
It appears a final decision will depend on the budget.
“We put in $1 million for our budget for 2017, for the land use plan,” Teregeyo said. “So it will almost depend if we get that $1 million appropriated. If not, we are going to have to wait for August for this existing contractor.”
